


Imprints

by Pattes_de_Fruits



Category: SilverWolf: Blood - Bone
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:35:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28393215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pattes_de_Fruits/pseuds/Pattes_de_Fruits
Summary: "Filial imprinting": A young animal narrows its social preferences to an object (typically a parent) as a result of exposure to that object.
Relationships: Hans Vahpet & Cocowill





	Imprints

(Draft 1)

He doesn’t expect her to act human. She’s been treated like a monster, like a _freak_ too much already. She is scared, distraught, desperate, and she apparently doesn’t know who she is. Well, who would after all she’s been through? What she’s been told and imprinted on (and beaten into and branded) is that she is a Vampire and a contradiction to humankind. To tell the truth, he is not sure he can convince her otherwise. He is not sure she won’t be.   
____

« Together »?  
She finds herself hoping… that he is not human — somehow.  
____

It is an unexpected turn of events. Maybe something he was somewhat waiting for — _hoping_ for at the same time. It could be a second chance for the both of them; though there is no doubt he’s made much more mistakes than she did. He might not be deserving of it, in the end, while she most probably did not deserve to be robbed of the first one to begin with. There are many questions that want answers around her (and it is one that saved her from him) — but he is going to make sure they remain hanging for now and unable to smother her. Maybe she shouldn’t have _been_ , but she is, and that is what can’t be ignored. It is unexpected, but he finds he somehow wants the same as that fool: _He wants to see her heal_.  
_____

She doesn’t understand. They hid her wounds. They told her to stay where they could see her. They didn’t place anything to restrain her. They aren’t amused. He lowered himself and smiled to her.  
____

They stand in front of his house, his hand is still on her shoulder. He’s found out on their trip from there to here that she was fine with it; even, it seemed to reassure her. He had been a bit amazed, in the laboratory, when she had simply leaned and got up to him at his outstretched hand. It had been easy. It probably is not genuine trust she puts in him, of course: It would be safer to say that she has recognized him as the new authority, her new referent or the like. Sadly, she saw how he had been prepared and ready to kill where he found her. She’s probably thinking that she would better not try her luck, and come smoothly as long as it goes so. What is done is done (and _that road_ might still not be completely out of the way), and he is what he is, but he hopes he can make her believe that what she saw is not what he wants anymore — make her believe in him.  
____

His house stands in front of them, big and old… different. _Alive_?

Inside, the air is free of any blood, so is the floor. To her, it feels like something is lacking, like she is going to miss the smell she was accustomed to: Like she lost any sense of familiarity. It’s a strange place with a strange air that might not be the one she can breathe in. Everything is foreign. Windows open the walls. She can’t see any cell or bars. The room is warm. She expects it to only be a passage and be lead in a next one but he lets go of her back to apparently settle in without pointing any particular spot for her.  
____

It usually would be so casual, but in this case, he can’t act like it’s only politeness. A cup of tea, biscuits, an invitation to stay for dinner, … How could _that man_ be so ignorant! Little things that could have been offered and accepted, but because he was too happy with his exhibit he didn’t even notice he was keeping her alive with the same nutrients as he was himself. Condemning her both to be and for being a monster… Trapping in more than one way. The elephant in the room has to be addressed sooner than later, though. He can only hope his life allowed him to inhabit a house big enough for it to fit in…

« Are you hungry? »

He asks, but in truth, he wants her to eat — not because it is what would set her apart from Vampires, but simply because she shouldn’t be that thin, and because he wants her to understand that he will guaranty her safety and comfort from now on, if she will take them. Only, for now, he sees her dread at the offer. There is a faltering in her breathing, and she looks down, and lost, brows furrowed.

There are many things that he doesn’t know how to approach. In this instance, should he eat with her, hand her a meal and leave her alone, keep her company, eat first, let her get her own food? Questions she probably doesn’t know how to answer herself.  
____

She is distracted when he rambles about « let’s see what we have here », rummaging in cabinets and taking out food that is not for her. Or is it? She really has to wonder if he is a « freak » or not, because no human would include her in a « we ». For as long as she wanted freedom, she finds herself lost now that she has it. He is busying himself and his back is to her, and she doesn’t know what she should do.

The answer is not very important though. Whatever happens next, she is happy. Whether he finally kills her or not, she saw outside. She will wait for the pain satisfied.  
____

He had to deal with all sorts of people along his journeys and missions… But a Half-Vampire kid? Does he want to give her space, let her come herself, make the first steps? 

High are the stakes. It is not about well-mannerisms, or even caring for a child. If he comes to raise her against him, she could grow to hate humans and want revenge (she already has reason enough, less the cage), and turn into a threat that he released onto the town. If he comes to raise her against him… she will have to be killed — and it will be his responsibility.

It is about finding the right sentence for her, the one that will keep her safe from the others and the others from her; it is about how to treat a prisoner, then.

No, he has to take another angle. _This_ … is not about the town. This is not about humanity.

It’s about one single girl.

It will only be the two of them now.  
____

After his enquiries earlier in the presence of the other man, she can’t help but think she is being tested again, and she doesn’t want him to watch her eat, because she doesn’t want to be spurned because of a bad response. Her throat closes even more, she is almost suffocating, and she wishes she could go without the « meals » altogether. For now, though, she finds it hard to refuse anyhow. She doesn’t know when will be the next occasion to ease the torment in her stomach and throat, and the chance to do so now is nagging her. She hates her body for it — she hates herself.

« Here, let’s start with some bread. »  
____

He just uncivilly breaks two chunks of bread from the baguette and bites into the one meant for him without ceremony while holding the other to her. She hesitates, wondering if she understands what he wants correctly, but her hands come up, probably as an instinct, and she takes it. He can’t be sure, but maybe it’s because he is a little theatrically doing so in front of her that she eats as well.  
____

When he comes back, he catches her intently watching the door by which he left the room, as if unable to find reassurance in his absence, but also cowering in fear as he approaches again. He readied a room for her, but he has no idea what it will mean to her and how she will react in it.  
____

She’s in the cell, alone and in the dark. She doesn’t know how she gets the idea that something else is possible, that there is another way of living; that the man lives too, that the people who come to see her out of curiosity are alive as well, and that she also could be out, be at their side… Be the little girl next to the little boy with the tall man holding a beautiful woman’s hand, ready to defend them should evil attack.

She doesn’t understand how she knows they are a bit like her: Sometimes in pain, sometimes afraid, sometimes lonely — with a mind and feelings, and an existence that is not at the center of everything. She doesn’t understand… because no one ever answers her calls and cries, as if they didn’t recognize those for what they are, as if they didn’t know what she just does about them about her. She has to believe she is the one who is not a bit like them. She is monstrous in spite of herself, and she feels guilty for being more afraid of them than of herself. It’s not out of the cell that she wants — it’s out of her body.

She could be dreaming of being free, and being allowed to live, but she isn’t. She’s standing despite the nails in her feet, because they don’t hurt that much. Her blood is all over the floor (her throat burns from the smell) but it’s not trickling down her body: Instead, she feels it solid, around her legs, stomach, arms, throat, cheeks, coiling around, like a snake with its _meal_ , and she waits to be strangled, but the kill doesn’t come. The snake refuses to feed. She has the vague feeling that there is someone that could or should have been there with her and is not, and that she misses them; but that their absence is for the best. It could be because she wouldn’t want them hurt as she is, or because they would add to the pain, or both, or neither…

She wakes up; alone in the dark as always. The light is still on, but does nothing. She is in a cell that is a lot larger, and that is not supposed to be a cell but a “room”. Her hands and feet aren’t tied, and she feels the urge to go find the man… — _which one?_ The one with the whip, the one with the little boy, or the one with death in his eyes? But it’s dark, and the possibility to drift through the shadows that she now has terrifies her, so she only sinks off the bed and in a corner, curled on herself. The snake has pursued her out of her sleep and she clasps it in her arms like to push him to attack, the bandages pulling on her skin, and tears falling.  
____

What’s wrong? Are you hurt? Did you have a nightmare?

For all he mentally told himself about the questions that wouldn’t be asked, he finds they are already back. She’s a mystery, and he doesn’t know if he’ll manage to deal with her. Just a girl? She is just a girl, but she is not _only_ a girl, and that he has to admit. As much as the fact that she doesn’t desire blood, it cannot be ignored or cast aside. She kept the light on and the door half-open as he left it. He can’t decide if he’s surprised. Is she afraid of the dark? Can’t she see through it as Vampires do? Would the last rule out the former? Could young Vampires have been afraid of the dark as his son was when he was young?

The fool did say her body was healing on its own as a Vampire’s. Well, should he remove the bandages then? Can he? He is reluctant to touch her, as he doesn’t know how that affects her — and she looks fragile with all of them around her… which is also why he’d like to get closer. 

Does she have parents or family somewhere? Is someone looking for her? Is it possible that the one who gave her life died by his hand? In his musings, his hand hesitates, goes forth and decides against it, brushes her, and a bandage comes partly off. There is nothing beneath it, only white skin that reflects the light a little.  
____

(Who would come?

She had stopped counting on anyone to get to her and make it feel better. It simply was not going to happen. There were cells that prevented contact, they were monsters incapable of any good, and humans only wanted them locked.

She can feel him lingering over her, and the only explanation is that he is not real.)  
____

« Cocowill? Do you want to talk about it? » he says rather meaninglessly. « Does anything hurt? Did you have a nightmare? » She is hiding her face as if to shut the world out. This is it for him. He puts his hands on her shoulders and gently pulls her to him, refusing to let her shut in. « I know it’s hard. Cocowill, please. Calm down. I’m sorry I left you alone. It’s alright. » She’s not looking up, so he just touches the top of her head.

Fate must be laughing. It is for him to give a life to this child because he is a Vampire hunter. Somehow, it is not his experience as a father but his life as a killer that led him to have a new kid at home.

Slowly, she does look up. And he does have some experience as a father.  
_____

It is strange to hear her name.

So strange that it almost seems like he is the one who just gave it to her. She knows that is not the case. It is just a feeling. But it is a feeling.  
_____

They can’t count on a routine yet, so they only clumsily manage the next morning. He again puts his hand on her head to guide her. Without recoiling, she flinches — of course. He knows he doesn’t need to « Vampire proof » the house: He doesn’t need to hide away any and all signs of his profession, she’s already aware of it. When she shyly looks up, though, he carefully puts a sincere warm smile on.

And she smiles back.  
_____

Fear is the weirdest of feelings. She clearly is no stranger to it, and yet, she feels like only the rudiments of it are in her grasp. People would come, and wait, and bargain to see her — to _fear_ her. And was this some kind of “civilized” fear? One that is strangely desirable and even honorable, when hers was only weakness and shame?

When the corridors turn longer and longer as the night settles and the dark falls, and they come alive with the dead — ghosts and shadows and wolves and _monsters_ … (Unknown monsters… just like her…) her skin hitches, her heart gets faster, and a contradiction bothers her mind. She doesn’t want to cross the corridor to reach the next room, she doesn’t want to cross him by acting so silly. And at this crossroad she unexpectedly has a say in, a part of her, some kind of instinct, quickly decides what the preferable course of action would be.

Timidly, she reaches out; and in this new situation she finds it is always him she wants with her. And still never the fear.  
_____

When you’re part human and part Vampire, and are told about how inhuman a Vampire is and witness the monstrosity of humans, what do you think of yourself? What are you and what can you be?

She follows him around; it surprises him. From someone who only knows contact to be painful, he would have expected avoidance, isolation. It’s true, though: What else does she have other than him?

There is this story about a bear and a man, that goes a little like theirs. _We know a bear to be dangerous; scary, feared, hunted before it becomes the hunter. One day, though, a hunter refused to kill one. When people heard about it, they laughed, for it wasn’t anyone but the President of their country himself who had a baby monster cornered and hurt, and still failed to kill it. But they were also moved somewhat… From here, one man sewed the first “Teddy Bear”, and, quickly, all children found one in their arms; and the bear became a heart-warming animal because a person had had a soft spot for one._

The story is very fitting, but he would have gifted her one either way.  
______

With a sideways glance, she imagines he could be scared of her too. He would ask question after question and talk again to try and ascertain her intentions. (She doesn’t have any. Yet.) From a stare behind his back, she concludes he is too tall and imposing for fear to get to him. It could be unsettling, but she learns she can rely on it instead. When she stays close, all the monsters flee and vanish away (even the one in herself) and his company is something she cannot go without anymore. In a look to his eyes, she falls in love.

The thing he reaches out to her is soft, and substantial, and warm, and tethering. A teddy-bear, _her_ teddy-bear. The story he tells with it is all of that and more — and he becomes everything to her.

« World » is a word. Behind it can be a grim cell, an unforgiving outside, a big house, a mysterious planet, a collapsing dream, but she feels her instinct decide it is him she wants there. « World » is a word and he has an infinity of others for her, and she listens and swallows them all like a man lost in a desert would an oasis, like a starved creature who is offered everything it needs and does not mind any of the consequences.  
______

In all her body, he can see that she is trying just as much as he is not to disappoint, to prove that everything can be alright. He smiles and beacons her closer. For now, this is all the proof he needs.

Maybe, later, it will be a problem. Maybe, in the future, she will become that monster — and he will have grown too attached to do anything. _Would he have the courage to kill a loved one who turned left?_ But this is not a question to be answered: For he is not a vampire hunter anymore. Maybe, in the future, she will be a Vampire. But, as far as he is concerned, he won’t be the one to deal with it. For now, she is a girl, and he is going to love her.


End file.
